
Janis Paige
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Janis Paige (September 16, 1922 - June 2, 2024; born as Donna Mae Tjaden in Tacoma, Washington) was an American film, musical theatre and television actress. She began singing in public from the age of five in local amateur shows. She then moved to Los Angeles after graduating from high school and then got a job as a singer at the Hollywood Canteen during World War II.
The Canteen, which was a studio-sponsored gathering spot for servicemen, is where Warner Bros. saw her potential and signed her up. She began her film career co-starring in secondary musicals, often paired with either Dennis Morgan or Jack Carson. She later was relegated to rugged adventures and dramas in which she was out of her element. Following her role in the forgettable Two Gals and a Guy released in 1951, she decided to leave the Hollywood scene.
She then took to the Broadway boards and scored a huge hit with the 1951 comedy-mystery play, Remains to Be Seen, co-starring Jackie Cooper. She also toured successfully as a cabaret singer, performing everywhere from New York City and Miami to Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
Stardom came in 1954 with the role of "Babe" in the Broadway musical The Pajama Game. (Doris Day went on to play the role on film.) After a six-year hiatus, Paige returned to films in Silk Stockings (1957), which starred Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, plus the Doris Day comedy Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960) followed by a role as a love-starved married neighbor in Bachelor in Paradise with Bob Hope (1961).
One of her rare dramatic roles was "Marion," an institutionalized hooker, in the 1963 drama, The Caretakers.
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Acting (44 movies)

The House Across the Street
1949

Silk Stockings
1957

Romance on the High Seas
1948

Winter Meeting
1948

Bathing Beauty
1944

This Side of the Law
1950

Hollywood Canteen
1944

Fugitive Lady
1950

Her Kind of Man
1946

Please Don't Eat the Daisies
1960

Bachelor in Paradise
1961

Follow the Boys
1963

The Caretakers
1963

Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There
2003

The Time, The Place and The Girl
1946

Happy Birthday, Bob: 50 Stars Salute Your 50 Years with NBC
1988

The Younger Brothers
1949

I Won't Play
1944

Welcome to Hard Times
1967

Of Human Bondage
1946

Wallflower
1948

Cheyenne
1947

One Sunday Afternoon
1948

Love and Learn
1947

Two Guys from Milwaukee
1946

Two Gals and a Guy
1951

Lanigan's Rabbi
1976

You're the Top: The Cole Porter Story
1990

Cop on the Beat
1975

The Turning Point of Jim Malloy
1975

No Man's Land
1984

Love at the Top
1982

Always Together
1947

Angel on My Shoulder
1980

Mister Universe
1951

Natural Causes
1994

Valentine Magic on Love Island
1980

That's Entertainment! III
1994

This Is Bob Hope...
2017

Journey to Royal: A WWII Rescue Mission
2021

The Other Woman
1983

Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age
2021

Hollywood Singing & Dancing: A Musical History - 1970's
2009

Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1930s: Dancing Away the Great Depression
2009
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